Hello all,
New member here trying to exhaust all available resources. I have an absolutly beautiful 85lbs German shepherd 14 month old. He has become a large part of my life. My last 2 Shep's lived over 14 years and had hoped to have this guy for at least ten. Anyways have had problems with urine leakage since he was 5-6 months. My vet said it was behavior and age. Boy was he wrong. After about 8 months of our current vet passing this problem off we went and got a second opinion. Blood work shows that he is in stage 3 kidney failure. I will post the blood results if that would help anyone with sugestions. According to the ultrasound it looks like his kidneys are underdeveloped and maybe damaged(6-7cm). Titan was 80lbs at 6months had gone as high as 88 but was down to 78 before we changed his diet a few weeks ago when we found all this out(he is 81 now and the new vet does not want him any skinnier). His protien and creatin levels are good. He also has an enlarged blatter and pee tube(causes the leaking?)If anyone has any experiance with this or diet suggestions or a way to help stop the leaking please post as I am interested in doing anything. Any ideas on life quality expectancy or general advice. I will try to get more specific info when I get ome and post his levels when I can. We have started him on some natural suppliments and changing his diet to home made low phosphate and lower protien as well as sarting hydrotherapy at least once a day. Thank you to anyone who posts back. I should mention his energy levels are fine and without the bloodwork and weight loss and leakage he looks and acts perfectly healthy.
Thanks in advance Titan and Garrett

Got some of his test # from the vet and will post them later today when I get home. Anyone with any suggestions or words of encouragement please reply. Anyone that has dealt with a dog with incontince that has any tips on keeping the house clean would be great or good products to use for clean up would help. Also anyone that makes a home made diet for their pet that might have some ways to keep the budget down would also be wonderful(2-3lbs of food a day gets expensive fast).

Sorry to hear you and Titan are going through this! He is one beautiful pup!

I don't have any experience with the kidney failure, but we did have one male that was incontinent for a while after he slid back first into a deck rail while playing and bruised himself badly. We were able to use PPA (phenylpropanolamine) for him and it seemed to strengthen the bladder, but I don't know if you can use it on a dog that's renally compromised.

Does he dribble or does he leave puddles? There are a lot of enzymatic cleaners out there formulated specifically for dealing with urine odor. Most online and brick-and-mortar pet supply stores carry at least one brand. They do a bang-up job of eliminating the odor.

someone with more experience with renal issues will log on and be able to offer you some advice on diet or prognosis. Have you considered going to a renal specialist? Might be pricey, but you might also get the best info on what to do and what to expect.

Best wishes for Titan!

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Thanks for the reply hazelrunpack. I am hoping that more people will share their thoughts. My home internet has been up and down becuase of construction and have not had a chance to bring the test # to work. I am hoping I will be able to post some of his blood test # tonight. I work shift work and my wife likes have him sleep with her in the room or on the bed but it is hard to keep him in there as I am steaming the carpets almost every week. We discussed with the vet what to do and are hoping that with a good diet ect. we can limit the dribbling and possibly depending on future health look into a suppliment that may strengthen his bladder. Right now we are just looking for anyone that may have some tricks that would help.
Thanks

"UNTIL ONE HAS LOVED AN ANIMAL, PART OF THEIR SOUL REMAINS UNAWAKENED"
He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion.
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